On 9/23/2013 1:48 AM, James Cameron wrote: > G'day, > > A friend has asked for a way to announce the opening of a farm gate. > > I can handle the announcing, but the detection seems to have ample > opportunities for error. Living in a rural area I have seen the abuse gates can take. I wouldn't=20 use anything that has moving parts or has to be delicate in any way. =20 Anything buried in the path of the road of the gate is also a bad idea=20 because it might get dug up when a tractor drags something, anything=20 from a trailer to a plow could happen. It is outdoors so something that=20 is oblivious to weather conditions is also required. I would use a mercury tilt switch. If it is like most farm gates it=20 isn't perfectly level and there is somewhere you can place a wire and a=20 tilt switch. Could be extremely low power too if you make it a N.O.=20 system where closing powers the circuit. Mark --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .